previous reviews. the npr concludes that stable deterrence can be detained while reducing vehicles by 50% from start one lefls. a finding that drove negotiations for the new treaty with russia. the united states will pursue high level, bilateral dialogues with russia and china aimed at fostering more strategic relationships. this determined that the united states will not develop new nuclear warheads. programs to extend the lives of warheads will use only nuclear components based on previously tested designs and will not support new military missions or provide for new military capableties. we will study options for ensuring the safety, security and reliability of warheads on a case by case basis and any decision to proceed to engineering development, we will give strong preference to

options for refurbishment or reuse. replacement of nuclear components, if necessary, would require specific presidential approval. correspondingly, the united states must make much-needed investments to rebuild our ageing nuclear infrastructure. i have asked for nearly $5 billion to be fratransferred ov the next several years to improve our nuclear infrastructure and support a credible modernization program. there are also areas of continuity in this report. among them, first, the united states will continue to hold accountable any state terrorist group that supports terrorist efforts to obtain or use weapons of mass destruction. whether by facilitating, financing or safe haven. second, we willñr maintain the nuclear triad of ballistic

missile submarines. third, we will continue to develop and improve nonnuclear capableties to strengthen deterrence and reduce the role of nuclear weapons. and finally, the united states will continue abiding by its pledge not to conduct nuclear testing. this npr was from beginning to end and interagency effort and i want to express my aappreciation from all departments. in closing, i'd like to thank the men and women at the departments of defense and energy, including the national labs, who are critical to sustaining our nuclear arsonal. their work underwrites the security of the united states as well as our partners and allies. secretary clinton. >> thank you very much, secretary gates. let me begin by thanking you for

your leadership in this effort and for the collaboration that persists throughout it. the nuclear postyur represents a milestone in the transformation of our nuclear forces. we are recalibrating our priorities to prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. and we are reducing the role and number of weapons while maintaining an effective deterrent to protection our nation, allies and partners. this provides a foundation on which we can build a more secure future. this is important not only for what it says, but in the way in which it was conducted. i believe it is the first unclassified npr in its totality. secretary gates is responsible for making this the most inclusive nuclear posture review

in history. admirable mullen and joint chiefs have been instrumental in working through a lot of issues that have been raised. the department of energy has brought its expertise to the table and i'm very proud of the role that the state department played in helping to set the policy and we'll be working with our allies and partners to explain and implement it, so it truly was a collaborative effort in keeping with the agenda and goals set by president obama. the consultations that supported this process included more than 30 of our allies and partners. it has helped prevent proliferation by providing al allies with reassurance and security. this policy allows us to continue that stabilizing role.

this also makes it clear we will cooperate with partners worldwide to prevent nuclear terrorism. under president obama's leadership, we work to and advance that agenda. thursday, the president will be back in prague to sign a historic new treaty with russia and next week, president obama will host more than 40 heads of state and government to tackle the threat of nuclear terrorism. this nuclear revie provides the strategic basis for these efforts and demonstrates our commitment to making progress toward disarmament under the treaty. we are enforcing our commitment to the npt by stating clearly for the first time that the united states will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons -- >> an announcement about how the obama administration will change its dealings with nuclear

strategy in the united states. we go to breaking news in west virginia. this is governor joe manchin on the tragedy. >> they're loving each other, they're hangi ining together he but it's very difficult for them, so ron wooten is the head of our mine safety and health and his responsibility is the mines of west virginia. we have our friends here, jermaine and -- you've been there for a while, haven't you? so, if there's any questions, there's not a whole lot except they're going to be drilling four holes now i understand versus three, correct? >> yes. three for ventilation and one more monitoring. >> you just can't believe the operation going on right now.

i can't even explain to you how you're taking such a huge piece of equipment cutting a road in the side of a mountain, setting it up and start drilling. it's the most unbelievable, and god bless them. they're giving all they have, but it's a slow process. >> governor? can i ask you, i just spoke with an expert who said the mine is

known as a gassy mine. was this disaster preventible? >> let me -- from our state and our federal -- people who basically have the responsibility of looking and doing all the mine inspections. >> all explosions are preventible. the mine operator would need to follow he has enough air and ventilation to keep an explosion from occurring. not only an explosion, an ignition. it's quite evident something wen ask to give us an opportunity to conduct the full investigation and we'll leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom and tell you exactly what was not going right here when this explosion did occur. >> officials had described the people who are operating this mine, massey -- a long history, not just at this mine, violations, fines, lawsuits.

did the chief executive of this state, are you comfortable with the way massey operates? >> i'm not comfortable any time there's an accident, no matter what it is. let me tell you where i stand. when sago, 1968, farmington, my uncle and family, nothing had been done up until 1968. why? we have a horrible explosion, 78 miners. then the mine safety act passed. nothing had been done since the '70s up until sago. i kept saying we didn't get rapid response. didn't have oxygen, didn't have communications, didn't have shelters. so when people get trapped, i wanted to make sure we had a chance to bring them out alive. we made historic changing in one day. i can't sit here and make any exkees and nor do i intend to.

i can only tell you when the investigation's completed and these people do their job and they'll give us the findings. and there's anything that could have been preventible or things we can do to give us the indication that something's out of whack, we'll pass, if legislation's needed, we'll pass it immediately. if not, i would expect the professionals to change their position on how they do this. right now, everybody is in a recovery mode. we're hoping we can still, by miracle, recover some miners. >> governor -- you know the record. you know their history of court action, of beating back fines and violations. are you comfortable with the way massey has been operating in your state? >> you're never comfortable when you have this. i just asked the same question you're asking me to my chief

here and mr. stricklin. let them explain this process, how this works, because a violation, you would think, if somebody's in violation, i'm going to believe that that must be a very serious violation. why would that continue? there are so many things that the people who work with this every day can give you a better explanation of how they inspect, what they look for. i have said if something is to where a person's health is jeopardized and their safety, stop it. shut it down. they know how i feel. >> governor, when talking about a horrific size, give us a sense comparatively -- >> the size of the mine? >> explosion. >> i can only tell you, say that when the rescuers this were in the mine and saw what they were able to see until they had to

come out and the type of damage that was done, that it had to be a horrific explosion because that kind of damage. for instance, rails that had -- that cars, buggies and heavy equipment. train rails that go back in, look like they had been twisted like a pretzel. that's horrific. that's an explosion beyond proportion and the heat. ron might be able to shed a little bit of light on what the process -- >> let me just say first that i certainly endorse what kevin stricklin said about the investigation. we have to get into this investigation. it's going to be lengthy. we need to find every single thing we possibly can that possibly went wrong and make sure that it doesn't happen

again. as far as the violation issue is concerned, let me just say that, and i think the federal and state laws are very similar. once an inspector finds a citation or violation, that inspector is to write a citation. the operator is then given a period of time to correct that violation. if the operator doesn't correct that violation in a timely manner, a closure order is issued. the fine comes after the fact. well after the fact. after the violation itself has been corrected. the conditions of the violation have been corrected. kevin? >> after the disasters in 2006, amp shire and the congressional folks was a big supporter of changing the laws to make it

safer through refuge chambers, lifelines, csrs, better stoppings and the one other thing that was added to it was the increased assessments for violations. the intent was to increase the amount of fines so it's just not a way of doing business for coal mine operators and i think that has served its purpose, however, it still gives the operator the opportunity for due process. he is not guilty till proven innocent. he's basically innocent till proven guilty and he gets his opportunity to go to court and basically challenge any violation that has been issued by one of my inspectors and that's not only for a massey mine, that's any mine in the country. and that's something that is in place today and that's something that the regulations allow.

you're asking if i had the ability to shut a mine down based on what i find and the answer to that is no. once a mine operator corrects the condition and makes it safe again, i can't allow, or i can't allow my inspector to say you keep that mine shut down. when the condition is corrected, they're allowed to go back to mining. >> kevin, how would you characterize the record of this mine? >> i haven't looked at it as closely as i think a lot of other folks have. we've been dealing with the rescue operation. i've heard the number of 458 violations that have been issued. that's probably on the high side as far as an average, but again, this mine is a larger mine than a smaller mine. i'm concerned that the number of d-orders, a heavier type of paper that has been issued, more than a regular citation that

would be issued and it means that the operator was aware of some of these conditions. again, we're going to have the time to slice and dice every one of these violations that have been issued here during our investigation and determine not only if we issued it correctly, but if there's anything that am shir could have done differently. >> what does it say after all the reports after sago and air com that this happened again -- >> well, from what the preliminary things that i see is the miners just did not have an opportunity to get to that point. if they would have gotten to that point, they would have been better prepared through the use of csrs to get to the refuge chambers. it appears they didn't get the opportunity to get to that. we're hopeful the four

individuals unaccounted for, that they got to a refuge chamber, so we can't say it didn't work yet, but indications are that the majority of the miners did not have the opportunity to utilize some of the better things put into the miner act in 2006. we did have a -- congressman made a good point, it was a quicker response. this occurred at 3:00 and by 3:00 in the morning, we basically had gotten to the majority of the mine and accounted for 18 of the 22 missing miners. if we go back in time and look at this response times in the past, it basically would not add up to what we saw here yesterday. this is definitely a positive that we've seen in the miner act of 2006. >> governor, i've got a question for you. what do you have to say about

massey and reluctance to let the families know about what's happened to their family members? >> we were just down meeting with the families. i go there first. and a massey representative was there and they came in after i started talking and we brought that up. what was said. we know the names of the 18 people still in the mine. don't know the fate of four of them and of course, you're wanting to hold on to one of those that we don't know and maybe could be a miracle and be alive would be yours, so with that anxiety, we have the people who were complaining saying there were people at home that didn't come to the mine, that weren't notified in person and the gentleman apologized and said they would, you know, if there was someone they could bring to their attention. this one woman talked about her sister-in-law.

they had been talking to the family members that were there. that's not good enough. they need to have that personal contact with the surviving spouse or the person that's waiting and not knowing or hearing or just seeing what they see when we're here at the media. i don't know. i've been back and forth, so i -- >> i spoke this morning with a widow of one of the first seven that was announced last night. first seven victims. i spoke to the brother as well of one of the first seven victims that were announced last night. the widow, this morning, her biggest -- she could not understand why she has not heard a word from the company yet. now, i'm sure there's a company policy. i'm sure there's a notification that has to be carried about to the inth degree, but i think

that's overdue. i think that contact is needed. this widow only knew the loss because her brother-in-law was a mine safety inspector. he saw the last last night. but she has had no contact from the company and that has concerned me as well. >> i feel like we're asking more questions -- >> we have no control over that. i think all the officials are at the mine site. we've been going back to the command station and the family and then going up on the site, so i haven't really -- i've seen mr. adkins. he came down and we talked. >> i think that the complaints from the families -- but they were missing at all. that they could have possibly been miners in there there were missing. the question is, a question

whether they were dead or alive. again, a question better suited for massey. >> i don't need to tell you all about communications. about, you know, sago and all the well-intended people that worked so hard. i don't know why the policies from corporate side, i can't speak to. >> governor -- >> i know one thing, that we're going to make sure that the state, every two hours we're rotating and going down and telling them what we know, however little or however much. i told them, i've been on their side of the fence and i know sitting there, a minute seems like an hour, a hour seems like a day and a day's an eternity. people need to know, they need to grieve. they need to heal, they need to close. they just need to know and we're doing everything we can to keep them informed. >> governor?

can you commit today to having a public hearing as with sago? >> we'll do everything. we'll have a complete investigation first as we've done before. then davd came in and helped me with that the last time. i will consult with him again to see how to best proceed, but you want to wait. to imshah and the state does their job. >> a congressional investigation as well. i've been in touch with the appropriate chairman and there will be a hearing in congress. >> what are the steps you're taking from here on out? >> the steps that's being taken now, the drilling process tells us if it's safe to go back in. that's the agonizing, the wait of having that, which could be up until tomorrow evening.

knowing if we can let the rescue teams go in and locate the other four members. at this point in time, it changes from the recovery to basically bringing our loved ones home. >> when you talk about tomorrow, are you saying it will finished tomorrow and be able to test the air? >> i'm understanding storm evening. kevin knows better than i do. if they hit some very difficult situations in drilling, could be longer than that. >> i think there's been a lot of talk and i think most people are trying to be as optimistic as they can with the numbers, but from the sites i've been involved in and associated with, things don't always go as quickly as you like. i tell you, those folks up there are drilling and doing everything they can. >> you're listening to the officials respond to that situation. this is the mine, there was a major explosion yesterday afternoon. 25 were killed. four still missing. the problem is, there's so much

toxic methane gas that they can't send search crews in and it may be tomorrow night before they can go in. they have searched some of these rescue changers, airtight chambers, where miners possiblily could go, find oxygen, find water and communications. there's one they haven't checked. the governor says they believe three of the miners missing could be in that last remaining chamber and they're hoping to find a miracle, that they'll find them alive, but this is agony for the families. we're going to stay on top of this. coming up, we're going to talk with someone who is an expert on mine safety. quick break here. new mousse temptations by jell-o. ♪

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we're following breaking news out of texas. kids who have been evacuated. appare apparently, a secretary at the school opened a letter and white, powdery substances fell out of the letter. that secretary was taken to the hospital and the students evacuated to the local high school. the public information officer said the secretary complained of itching and no other symptoms, but they're worried about what this substance is. hazmat is on the scene and now they're asking the school district to say that parents can pick up their kids, but the school district will keep them until the end of the day if necessary. we're also watching developments about that west virginia coal mine explosion. the cause so far, unknown, but here's a real problem with the mine. it has a long history of safety violations. we've just been told by the

governor, it may be until tomorrow night before they can drill into this mine, bring in fresh air and replace some of the toxic methane gas and allow crews to find the four missing miners. bruce dial is an expert on safety. bruce, 25 miners already killed. four missing at this point. talk a little about the danger that lies in store for search crews when they go in. >> well, the rescue teams go in to look for the missing miners, they had to pull those out because of the high methane exposure to help get rid of the methane, they've decided to drill holes down from the surface down to -- so they can pump methane out, plus, they can use one of the holes as a monitoring system to see how much methane is left in there. >> the governor said it may be

tomorrow night before they can drill. could the drilling itself of these holes spark an explosion if the gas konz strags is so high? >> i'm sure they've looked at the strata to see if there's anything that could cause that. >> the governor says he's hoping for a miracle in this case, to go in and find these four miners alive, but there are now, and this happened after some of the past mining disasters, there are these rescue chambers. they're airtight, they have oxygen, they have water, communications and the officials in west virginia say they believe that three of those four missing miners are in the one remaining refuge chamber that has not been checked. if that's the case, wouldn't they be able to communicate with these miners? >> the chambers have communication devices, but if

they're still working after the education ploe explosion, it's hard to tell. they have wireless systems as well as hard wired systems. they could be in there, but the communications just not working. >> so obviously, time is of the essence here. is it a long shot at this point, to find those four guys alive? >> if they made it to the rescue chambers, they have plenty of oxygen for up to i think about four days. if you were back in sago, the miners had to just barricade into a three-sided heading and put a curtain up, but the oxygen and gases were too much. if they make it into these rescue chambers, they have have plenty of oxygen, food, water, first aid supplies, so they have a good chance. >> there's families, in fact, the entire community now, who are keeping their fingers crossed that that miracle develops. thank you so much for lending your expertise.

14 of those miners have been identified and on "today" this morning, the family of benny wing lham was confirmed dead. >> he was set to retire in just five weeks. had he spoke about what he hoped his life would be like after working? >> he was really looking forward to it. he and my aunt, my parents, they were going to take a cruise to the virgin islands at the end of may and he was very, very excited about that. >> jeff goodell is a contributing editor to "rolling stone" and has written extenzi e extenziveextenzive stone" and has written extenzi e extenziveextenzix coal mining. we just heard in that news

conference from officials, that massey has yet to reach out to some of the families. does that surprise you? >> yeah, it really surprises me, especially someone like don blank blankenship, who is the ceo of massey energy and has often been outspoken as a champion, as he says, of his employees and workers. the fact he has not contacted them is really surprising. >> there were also a lot of questions for the mining inspectors about the violations that company has already faced. they've racked up more than $380,000 in fines and in the last couple of months, you're looking at the mine safe safetisiatio safetisiatiosafety citations. if you go in and find a problem, you fix it and then the mine continues to operate. if you're looking at things like ventilation problems, ventilation problems,

ventilation problems, isn't that an indication these workers were going into an unsafe workplace? >> it certainly is when you see repeat violations. i think we're going to have to look at what happens in the investigations, in the weeks and months ahead, but it's really important to say that massey energy has a, is well-known for its sort of aggressive mining practices, for flouting mountain top mining laws. it is well-known for its behavior in the coal fields. >> when you're doing research on coal as an industry, what have you learned about not only the health and safety concerns for the people who work in this industry, but just coal, because it's mentioned all the time as a

cleaner alternative for importing foreign oil. what's your take on where we stand with coal and whether it's still valuable in this day and age? >> well, coal is incredibly valuable. it generates about half the electricity in the america. it's key to keeping the lights on. there's no real overlap between coal and oil. people who promote coal like to suggest there is, but we use oil for transportation and for manufacturing and we use coal almost exclusively to keep the lights on, but coal's got big problems. it is the number one producer of greenhouse gases, which are the cause of global warming. and especially in this region, where this tragedy has happened, this is the epicenter of so-called mountain top removal practices where you have big operators like massey, who are lopping off the mountains and really damaging and wrecking the clean water supplies there. the epa just made a ruling to

tighten some of the water restrictions. >> massey's about to probably undergo a scrutiny like they never have before. the accident at the upper big branch mine comes at the time when many thought the u.s. mining industry had turned a corner in preventing incidents. last year, this were 34 fatalities. it remains a dangerous profession. many will recall the explosion at the sago mine. that same year in may, five days at the darby mine in kentucky. in 2006, crandell mine in utah. in september, 2001, an explosion

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the same plant that gives us tequila may have a bone benefit. researchers in mexico studies ingreed yents from a plant says it helps the body increase -- however, before you grab that margarita, experts say the ingredient is burned off when changed to alcohol. a double hit for the u.s. military has the pentagon on the defensive. first, a leak to the video on the internet of a u.s. helicopter in baghdad opening fire on a group of men, including a reuters photographer and his driver. then again on a van that stopped

the rescue one of the wounded men. the attack killed 12. some of the men were armed. and then in afghanistan, pentagon officials acknowledge special operations forces inadd ver tantly killed three women in february, but then denied allegations that it was covered up. there were reports that the team even removed bullets from the bodies and walls to hide the fact of the bungled mission. joining me now is retired general barry mcaffrey. when we're talking about the way the army is perceived, in iraq and afghanistan, how much damage does it do if they are killing civilians and it becomes public? >> well, two different incidents, two different times. 2007, helicopters in iraq, a

17-minute video. the website says yes, they were armed, but appeared relaxed, which is almost a comical statement. what they were doing is supporting ground forces during the middle of the city of six million people. most innocent civilians, trying to deal with an urban insurgency that was killing or wounding hundreds of u.s. and iraqi soldiers and police a week. i don't make much of it, to be honest. there were weapons in the area. what drove that one was two reuters reporters were killed, unfortunately, who had gone to the site for some reason, probably because there was a story there, so that's one incident. i don't think that's almost anything. probably worst relooking for the u.s. armed forces. >> in that case then, why keep it classified. was there information in that video, anything in it that shouldn't have been classified or just an attempt by the military not to own up to its

mistakes? >> well, it's not clear to me that it was a mistake, contessa. if they were armed people on the ground, the fact they appeared relaxed is good. that apparently was a special operations mission. everything about their raid is classified. the reuters news service wanted to, you know, look into their report. they finally had gotten in out. now, there's nothing particularly sensitive, as far as i can tell. it was an attack on armed people in baghdad. >> let me ask you about this afghanistan incident. we reported it yesterday, that nato said there was no cover-up, but there's major questions about this incident where three afghan women were killed. we know karzai is being very critical of the coalition in his country, blaming them for all

kinds of problems. how problematic is this for the military men and women? >> i think the fact that karzai the making some really outlandish statements in public reflects both bad handling on the part of the united states diplomatic mission for how we deal with this guy. we can't be critical in public of karzai non-stop and not expect him to push back. he invited ahminedjad to come in in response to his first perceived slight by the u.s. diplomatic mission. now, another problem of course is general mcchrystal is trying to stop is killing of innocent civilians for any reason. he's got some extremely rigorous rules of engagement in place. it looks as if this was a bungled military operation. they killed two guys who were armed. they were actually not bad guys. and then they apparently killed three women also. this is the kind of thing that

does damage in the middle of the counterinsurgency campaign in afghanistan. >> general, it's good of you to join us today. thank you. the u.s. is forced to deal with president karzai, yet he's in power thanks to the united states. listen to what former deputy u.n. had to say. >> he's prone to tirades, he can be very emotional, act impulsively. some of the palace insiders say he has a fondness for some of afghanistan's most profitable exports. >> if you're going to make that allegations, let's be explicit about it. >> so you're saying he's got his own substance abuse problem? >> there are reports to that effect. >> peter on the morning rundown this morning. glenn kessler is a senior

reporter for the "washington post." you just heard the general saying there is a real problem with the way the united states is diplomatically handling hamid karzai. is he still an ally in afghanistan? >> certainly, the criticism the general raised has been heard in many quarters. the feeling that the administration, particularly vice president biden, holbrooke and national security adviser, jim jones, have said very critical things about president karzai in public. other members of the administration such as secretary clinton have been more -- though in private conversations, they have really pushed him to crack down on corruption, to be a leader, to work to bring afghanistan together. and they haven't seen many

results. the question is, how do you handle them. >> and he's a problem. he was coming under fire during the election for electoral fraud. now, he's blaming that on the united states for that. he's even made comments that if the united states and other allies don't shape up, he might go to the taliban. we need someone to be in afghanistan, a troubled region. >> right. karzai has the ultimate trump card, which is that there is no one else. the obama administration looked into other possibleties before the election, to see if there was someone there to mount a credible challenge to karzai and be a credible leader. they couldn't find anyone. even with the electoral fraud which was documented, which he identified and blew the whistle

on, even with that, ultimately, the administration had to expect karzai as the leader. >> glenn, thank you for putting it that way. a lot still to happen today. ten minutes, kathleen sebelius will speak at the top of the hour. ever wish you knew a retirement expert? let's meet some. retirement's a journey and, we know the territory. we're chartered retirement planning counselors at td ameritrade. we're trained. we're seasoned. experienced. we'll help you with rollovers. consolidating old accounts. opening new ones. guiding you through paperwork. we're like retirement co-pilots. call us soon. when you're ready, we're here. time for fresh thinking. time for td ameritrade.

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tiger woods is getting in another practice round at augusta national today. and woods is setting his sights on qualifying for the masters now that his big meeting with the media is out of the way. but woods did reveal his wife

won't attend the masters. as for his golf game -- >> what are your expectations this week? >> nothing's changed. try and go out there and win this thing. >> doug is a former assistant golf professional at augusta national. you just found out now who's being paired with tiger woods. who is it? >> just found out that kj choi and matt kucher. >> given the fact that everyone seems to be going to augusta, how much pressure does that put on the guys who have to play alongside him? >> there's a whole lot of pressure. also the crowds. there's going to be an enormous amount of people following tiger. it's going to be nerve racking for them. >> you worked at augusta, with a lot of the top name golfers. how do you think tiger is

handling the scrutiny and scandal? >> i think what he did yesterday, it took about four months too long. he did a great job. he finally became real to me. more like arnold palmer than he was before. i think arnold palmer had a lot to do with him the last couple of months. had a lot to do with talking with tiger and how to act and whatever. >> are you likely to see a different environment at augusta because tiger's there? >> the best thing about augusta national is it's like a sanctuary for golfers. they didn't play bay hill because tmz would have been there. it's a perfect place to start. >> doug, i appreciate you coming in. >> my pleasure. >> i'm contessa brewer. i'll see you back here at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. out west. up next, "andrea mitchell

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right now, 25 people are now dead. four are still missing. it is the worst mine disaster since 1984 in west virginia. >> right now, everybody is in a recovery mode. we're hoping that we can still, by miracle, recover some miners. >> rescuers have limited access to the mine because of poisonous methane gas near the blast site. within the hour, the governor reported they may have to wait until tomorrow night to continue the search for the missing. extending the agonizing wait for family and friends. this mine has had a long history of violations for not ventilating properly the come busting gas. today, the president offered

condolences and federal aid. >> there are rescue teams searching tirelessly to find them. i spoke with governor manchin of west virginia last night and told him that the federal government stands ready to offer whatever assistance is needed in this rescue effort. >> at the white house also today and pentagon, the president has unveiled a new strategy, a new nuclear deterrent strategy, a big shift from his pred se sors. >> we are recalibrating to prevent nuclear proliferation and terrorism and we are reducing the number of weapons while maintaining a safe, secure effective deterrent to protection our nation, allies and partners. i'm andrea mitchell, live in washington. we'll begin in west virginia. only a slim hope now of finding

the four missing miners alive. norah o'donnell is in west virginia. we've had great success four years ago with the last mine disaster where there was a survivor. let's talk about your work done there. you've been there all night and talked to the governor. what hope do they really have? >> well, the governor told me there are long odds that those four missing miners are still alive and the governor just said that it was such a horrific explosion that some of the rails on the cars that bring the miners out of that shaft, were twisted like pretzels, so clearly, he was very moved by this and has been spending time with the families. 25 dead now in this accident. what he's also describing now is this search that has been suspended. can you imagine being a family member and not knowing where one of your family m